Don't You Plan Things Here?
by citosol
Summary: Tideese and Crews-Reese partnership. AU. Reese discovers a thing she hasn't planned.
1. I Didn't Plan This

_It happened that an angel came down from the sky and helped me out with this.  
Astrelita, If you are reading this chapter even here you have to know I'll never stop thanking you._

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

**I Didn't Plan This.  
**

Surely there is another explanation, but her common sense tells her that she still has to do this.  
So, along the road from home, Tidwell's home, to the Police Station, Dani stops at the drugstore and buys _it_.

Half an hour later she's at the Station, in the woman's bathroom, and two pink lines are staring at her from the pregnancy test she's just done.

Positive.

There must be an error.  
Her thoughts go to the drawer of her desk were she put the box with the second test. As soon as possible she'll do it again and it'll be negative. Definitely. And if it had been positive too, she'd have bought another box of pregnancy test.  
And she'll keep buying them until she gets a _negative_ one.  
That's a good plan.

She _cannot_ be pregnant.

Well, technically she _could_, according to the theory of bees and flowers, but she's on the pill and she has never forgotten one.  
Or has she?

**xxx xxx xxx**

Crews is waiting for Tidwell in the conference room.  
On the board in front of him is a map of the city and some pictures: a young woman and an older man lying face down in a pool of blood, a knife, a tattoo and a mug shot of a young man.

Tidwell storms inside the room.  
"Detectives, hit me!"  
Then takes a second look and stares at Crews. "Where's your partner?"

"It's funny," smiles Crews "I was about to ask you the same question!"

Tidwell frowns and tilts his head. He opens his mouth, but before he could say anything, Dani enters the room and pins another picture on the board.

"Mafalda Winterspoon."  
A woman in her fifties stares back from the photo at the two Detectives and at their puzzled Captain.  
"Guess what?-" Dani asks rhetorically, looking at Crews "-this woman happens to be the ex-partner of this-" she points her index finger to the picture of the two murdered people

"-man…" Crews finishes her sentence.

"No. " Dani grins mysteriously "Woman." she fixes her eyes in Charlie's ones, raising an eyebrow.

Tidwell has stared at Dani during all her exchange with Crews, noticing she has intentionally avoided looking at him.  
Oh god. What has he done to her this time?  
He inspects his last hours with Dani.  
She was perfectly happy yesterday when they had dinner at the Italian restaurant.  
She was perfectly happy later in the evening in his living room while she was riding him on the couch. And he was perfectly happy too, of course.  
And she was perfectly happy this morning when she left his apartment after they had made love for the third time in a row that night.  
Something must have happened between _this morning_ and _now_.  
How come he's able to upset her even when he's not with her at all?

Crews looks at the Captain. Reese looks at Crews looking at him.

_You're the Captain: say something._  
"Good work. Go and find out what this woman has to say about these two." Tidwell points his hand toward the photo on the board.

Reese and Crews turns on their heels, heading towards the door.

"Detective, wait a minute."

The two of them turn their heads simultaneously: Crews looking straight into Tidwell's eyes, Reese staring at a certain point over Tidwell's left shoulder.

"I think he's talking to you…" Charlie whispers toward Dani.

She rolls her eyes in a "_thanks-for-pointing-out-the-obvious"_ way, and crosses her arms, waiting. Her eyes never leave Tidwell's shoulder.

"I hope you're not going to kiss me." she bursts out after Charlie has left the room.

Tidwell ignores her dig and tilts his head, trying to enter into her visual field.

Finally their eyes meet.

"What?" she offers.

"You know, I was about to ask you the same question." He puts his hands on his hips, waiting.

Dani blinks once. Then decides it's better to hold the reins.  
"Listen. There's a certain job that's waiting for me outside. The "_find-out-the-murderer" _kind of job, and my partner and I haven't much time to do that, so-" she tilts her head closing briefly the eyes and heads for the door walking backwards "-I think you don't really want to keep me here right now."  
She storms out of the room before he could protest.

Tidwell gapes.

**xxx xxx xxx**

"You seem pale. No. You _are_ pale-" Crews establishes after having stared at her for a while.

Dani clenches her fingers on the steering wheel saying nothing.

"-'Coz if I say '_you seem_' I express an opinion, while if I say '_you are_' I express a matter of fact. And you _are_ pale. Definitely. Reese, are you right?"

"I was feeling better before you started blathering things with no meaning in them, thank you."

"'_Better_', but not _well_, so that means you're not right."

Reese rolls her eyes while Crews is giving her his best Zen-smile.

"When I arrived at the Station this morning I saw your jacket on your chair but you weren't there. I thought you were with Tidwell, you know, doing things that a girl usually does with her boyfriend, like-"

"-Crews!"

He raises his hand in an apologizing gesture, skipping the description of what two clandestine lovers can do when they're at work, and continues "But then Tidwell asked me about you in the conference room, so I-"

"-Crews!" Dani sharply interrupts his flood of words "Just come to the point, for god's sake! This isn't the right day to be _annoying._"

Hearing no reply, she turns his head and meets his glance.

Crews was studying her with those blue eyes of his.

"I…I'm sorry." She concedes.

"See?" Charlie starts to say "I don't need to fight to prove I'm right. You're not well, physically _and_ emotionally, I'd say."

Dani gapes and blinks twice, but then she purses her mouths, taking her self-control again.  
"Crews. Do you remember when you start to act like you're on another planet and I ask you to come back and keep doing your work?"

"Hmmmyes…"

"Okay. Now I'm trying to do my work. So please stop asking me if I'm right. I only want to do my work."

Charlie nods yes.  
"Got it. You're not well but you don't want to think about it."

Dani rolls her eyes once again but doesn't reply.

**TBC**


	2. I Didn't Plan This Either

**I Didn't Plan This Either.**

**  
**Charlie wears an amused smile while looking at Dani.

"How come the case files are always on my desk?" Reese asks, casting a dark glance toward her partner from behind a high pile of folders she's carrying in her arms.

Tidwell has asked them to move all the documents in his office. The sudden addition of Mafalda Winterspoon to the list of suspects has made it necessary to completely rethink all the evidence they've previously gathered.

"Actually I think you lost one of them…" Crews nods without stopping to smile "They were ten, you've only got _nine_…" he points his index finger toward the files.

"Crews." Another dark glance. "Stop making fun of me and help me out with these things!" she adjusts the balance of the folder at the top with her nose and continues, "Just look in the second drawer, the file you're searching must be there…"

Charlie, still smiling, shrugs his shoulders and put his hand on the drawer handle.

She just takes few steps toward Tidwell's office when the sudden realization hits her like a punch.

"No! Don't open it!" Dani yells abruptly, turning quickly on her heels.

Too late.

Their eyes meet as the folders falls down from Reese's hands, and they both feel the time stopping for a while.

**xxx xxx xxx**

The turmoil attracts Tidwell's attention. He comes to the door.  
"You two alright there?"

Two heads turns quickly to him.

When Tidwell starts to walk toward them, Dani rapidly closes the drawer, almost crushing Crews' finger in it.

"Yes! Yes…it's just Crews… here…we're coming" she babbles.

Tidwell stops dead in his tracks.  
He could tell that something is wrong even without being a Detective. There is sense of guilt in her eyes, definitely, and…_bewilderment…_in Crews'.  
What's going on between the two of them?

He gives them a suspicious look, but nodding yes he slowly turns back.  
"Arrange that mess and call Officer Stark in here," he said stepping back into his office.

Dani turns, looking at Charlie.  
"_Don't_…say anything."  
She underlines her statement by opening her arms and raising her hands, palms toward Charlie, as if trying to put an invisible barrier between herself and her partner's thoughts.

Charlie is standing still, the folder in his hand and eyes on her.

After a while, in which, strangely enough, Charlie stays quiet, she nods and bends down starting to collect the papers and the folders scattered on the floor all around her desk.

"Positive?" he finally asks in a whisper without moving a muscle.

Dani stiffens visibly_.  
"Don't say anything _includes even _don't ask anything," _she remarks talking to the floor.

Charlie kneels down beside her and quickly traps her left hand between the floor and his.

Dani raises her eyes.

He finds the answer there.

"Positive." Crews states.

His eyes, his attention, his whole…_body_…is focused on her, and this catches her off guard.

Charlie is here for her, totally for her.  
For a crazy moment Dani feels like she can fall into his arms and let herself go. Feels like she can tell him _everything_ is in her heart: that _yes_, ladies and gentlemen, she's pregnant, and that there's a part of her that knows she can't/mustn't have a _baby_, but that there's another part, just a feeble voice, that keeps telling her she wants to have Tidwell's baby indeed, because he wants him, because he desires him.  
Because Tidwell is _The One_.

But it's just a moment, and it passes quickly.

"Yes. Positive. But not for long" is her dry answer.  
Dani frees her hand from Crews' grip and stands up.

The implications of her short comment leaves Charlie stunned.

"But Reese…are you sure you took the right decision?" he sighs "I mean: Tidwell-"

"-_If_ you say anything to Tidwell you're a dead man," she hurls back without turning her face to him.

Crews watches as she walks toward Tidwell's office.

There was a time when he was disgusted by Tidwell.  
There was a time when he didn't understand Tidwell. Then there was a time when he started _to understand_ him and even to _like_ him.  
And there was a time when he was jealous of Tidwell.  
Now he feels only deep sadness thinking about what Tidwell is going to lose without even knowing it.  
He has seen Tidwell's feelings for Reese begin and grow stronger. Plus he perfectly remembers Tidwell telling them he wants children, so Crews can only imagine how much the Captain would want a baby with Dani.

This is unfair.

Crews watches as Tidwell carefully takes the folders from Reese's arms, and there's…'_something' _in this moment: the look in his eyes, the kindness in his gesture or maybe the way in which their bodies touch, that makes Charlie imagine her handing him not a stack of case files, but a newborn baby.

This is _so_ unfair.

**TBC**


	3. Plan A

**Plan A.**

**  
**"What happened with Crews?" Tidwell casually asks her, putting the folders on his desk.

"Nothing." Dani answers avoiding eye contact.

He makes a grimace and decides it's better to change the subject.  
"Listen." He smiles, making an indefinite gesture in the air with his hands "I thought that this evening we can-"

"-I'm _not_ going to come to your apartment this evening." she cuts him short.

He stops dead, lowers the hands and nods.  
"Okay. So I'll organize the things for tomorrow evening."

"I don't think I'll come tomorrow evening either." Dani raises her eyes, meeting his wounded glance "To be honest, I don't think I'll come to your place for a while."

Tidwell's face falls while Dani turns her attention back to the folders, picking up photos and clues.

"Dani."

She doesn't stop organizing the files.

Tidwell grabs her shoulders with both his hands, forcing her attention.

"Dani."

With a great effort she looks straight into his eyes, trying to hide her feelings for him and for the situation.

"What's going on?" He asks searching her eyes "I mean, what have I done to you?"

_You seduced me, you made me happy, you made me pregnant._ "Nothing."

Tidwell opens his mouth to reply but stops and lets go of Dani as Crews enters his office,carrying the last folders he picked up from the floor.

**xxx xxx xxx**

The hardest part about doing your job earnestly is to not have the chance to open your heart to your colleagues sometimes.  
Unfortunately it happens, especially if you mix work and private life.

So the three of them are trying to deal with their individual feelings while doing their jobs, when Officer Stark enters Tidwell's office.  
He senses immediately that there's something strange in the air.  
Reese is pale, and very un-Reese-like quiet, Tidwell doesn't stop looking at her, and Charlie tries to fill the void talking too much, smiling too much and gesturing too much toward the board.

"I've got the victims' tox-screen and blood exams…" Bobby announces cautious, fluttering a file.

"Thanks."  
Tidwell takes the envelope from his hands, scans briefly the papers and puts a hand on his mouth, thinking for a while, trying to give the right weight to the information he's just learned, before sharing them with his Detectives.

After a little while he raises the index finger, shifting his hand from the mouth to the air in front of him, and nods.

She was six weeks pregnant. The victim, I mean."  
His blue eyes inspect all of their reactions".

Charlie is the first who says something.  
"So the murderer made three victims, not two."

Dani blinks once.  
"Crews. Six weeks is _nothing_. I don't think _it_ counts as a…_victim_," she hurls back, knowing her partner's real intentions.

Charlie keeps the ball rolling "But _it_ exists! Well…has existed," he corrects himself nodding. "_It_ was a "he" or a "she." A gesture with eyes closed before starting to mutter "Or it _was about to be _a "he" or a "she"...I don't know exactly when you start to be something-"

"-Crews! Just stop!" her eyes flash with anger.

Charlie has a sudden idea.  
"Captain, back me up on this!"  
He's thinking that if his idea works, Dani is going to learn soon Tidwell's opinion about killing an innocent life.

Tidwell was looking confusedly at them.  
Okay. The news _is_ interesting and unforeseen, but he wasn't expecting such reaction from Crews and Reese.  
He makes a face.  
"He, or…_she-_" he concedes looking at Crews "-was. Period. Someone cut down the baby. That's a murder. Definitely." Each statement was underlined by a gesture of his hand in the air.

Reese looks at him for a while then stands up and storms off the room.

Tidwell turns his head toward Crews.  
"What's the matter with her?"

Charlie tries to keep his face blank. He's really sorry for him and he does want Tidwell to know everything, but he can't betray Reese. It's the _partner code_, and as he said once: "S_ometimes_ _partners know more about each other than their own mates_".

"Maybe she's not well yet..." Bobby says candidly, making Tidwell and Charlie look questioningly at him.

"Not…_yet_?" Tidwell asks, frowning.

"Yeah, I mean…" the Officer starts to say, confused "…yesterday Officer Smith saw Detective Reese in the bathroom where she had just…uh…" he frowns, tilting the head "…I thought you knew she was sick…"

"No, I didn't…" Tidwell replies slowly "…Crews?"

"Uh?" Charlie raises his eyebrow.

Bobby makes a gesture with his hand trying to rescale the question "Bah! Women and their woman's _problem_s!...If you know what I mean…" he smiles knowingly.

Yes. Tidwell does know what he meant.  
And suddenly he found himself trying desperately to remember when the last time _was_ that she had her..."_problems_".

No period. Feels sick. Becomes angry talking about babies. She _doesn't want_ babies: _he_ wants them.

"Oh my god." Tidwell murmurs to himself, sitting down. "I'm having a baby…".  
He smiles, but it doesn't last long: he can guess from Dani's behavior she isn't exactly happy to be pregnant.

Bobby is still smirking, thinking about woman's habits and doesn't hear him.

Crews however is looking directly at Tidwell while the discovery that can change a man's whole life is just now dawning on him.

**TBC**


	4. Wrong Plan

**Wrong Plan.**

**  
**That evening her doorbell rings.

When Dani opens the door she finds Tidwell standing in front of her.  
In the semi-darkness she notices he's wearing the same suit he wore few hours before at work. His tie is more crumpled though, like he has tormented it with his hands, and his ruffled hair gives him the wild look able to arouse her every time she sees it.

_No_, she restrains herself, _not this time_.  
She has to stop being physically attracted to him.

This kind of attraction is the mainstay of their relationship. And her finally meeting his desire to have sex with her was the thing that has made their story begin.  
Dani doesn't _exactly_ know why she did that, but she suspects that having had Tidwell always there for her has made her notice that, after all, his presence, even his _physical_ presence, was able to drive her crazy. In a good way.  
It was definitely an odd attraction, Dani has to admit to herself, but it lead him straight into her pants.

She still pretends to not hear that softly persistent voice that keeps telling her Tidwell was able not only to get in her pants but even, to her surprise, pierce the defence she had built around her heart.

She turns round and takes a few steps, leaving him on the threshold.  
"Come in, but I warn you: I'm not going to have sex with you."  
She knows she's talking more to herself than to him.

Having sex is the last thing that crosses Tidwell's mind right now, even if he has to admit that her skimpy shorts and low-necked white T-shirt are yelling at him: _'Fuck me!'._

"I know what's happening." He smiles tentatively, and goes to take a step forward, but stops when she continues.

"So Crews told you everything, uh?" Dani stiffens slightly.  
She isn't _exactly_ surprised. She knows that when Tidwell wants to know something he is able to get the information he desires in one way or another.

"Crews?" The smile quickly drains from Tidwell's face "You told _Crews_ first?...Not _me_?" It's not anger this feeling inside him. It's…_pain_.  
He senses things are not heading in the right direction. His suspicions about Dani really not wanting the baby are starting feel all too real.  
"I mean…Dani, I'm the father!"

She turns on her heels, looking hard at him.  
"Listen. I didn't tell anything to anyone." She sighs. "He saw the pregnancy test in my drawer and guessed right the answer-" Dani leans against the back of her couch, directing her look towards the floor "-like you did."

Tidwell enters the apartment, closing the door behind him.

He's never really thought about how he'd react knowing he's going to be a father, but if someone asked him, he'd answer it should involve holding the woman close, being both really happy, and celebrating into the night.  
It's true that you can never tell what life has in store for you.

All the same, he feels like he has to try .  
"Okay. Just…What are we going to do now?" Tidwell smiles "I mean, isn't this where we celebrate?" his smile widens "And there are so many decisions to make…first of all we have to choose where are we going to live: my place? Your place? New place? Then we have to list baby names…I've always loved the name "Brian". Listen: "Brian Tidwell"...it does sound good, doesn't it? And then we-"

"-_We_?..._Decisions_?" Dani cuts him off raising her eyes "I made my decision as soon as I saw the result of the pregnancy test. And I didn't tell you anything because there was nothing to say." She nods "Well, to be precise, _next week_ there will be nothing to say."

Tidwell opens his eyes wide "Wait, wait, wait…hey, Dani…I'm still the _father_!"  
His voice softens as he moves toward her, and he underlines the sheer truth he's saying by opening his arms, offering himself completely to her.

Frightened by the intensity of his gesture she stands up and withdraws, raising her index finger, trying to keep him at a distance.  
"You don't really want to be a father…you don't really want to be with me either. We're having fun, and I like it, but nothing more" she breaths hard "And I'm an ex-alcoholic, and I want to become Lieutenant, and I don't think I'm ready for…_this_" she makes a gesture with her hands trying to combine Tidwell, herself and what is in her tummy.

Tidwell looks at her, so wounded by her outburst, by her dismissal of what they have, and by the fact that she believes he doesn't want to be a father, that he hasn't the strength to fight her back.

"Is really this what you think about me and…about us?" he asks feebly.

With a great effort she forces herself to nod slowly.  
_Yes_.

Tidwell frowns and purses his lips.  
"Do you want to know the truth?" he puts his hands on his hips, displacing the edge of his jacket, showing the badge and the gun still hooked at his belt, "You're projecting."  
The Captain points at her, shifting his weight to one leg ,"_You_ are the one who doesn't care being with me, and _you_ are the one who's having _only_ _fun_."  
He underlines these two last words with his voice, articulating them clearly and pointing twice his finger toward the floor.  
He looks straight into her eyes, with a determinate expression on his face.

Tidwell's nodding yes almost absentmindedly, trying to gauge the weight of what he's about to confess, knowing that the next few words are going to cost him all his strength.

"I love you."

He pauses, a slight smile playing across his face.

Usually he avoids saying things like these because he thinks they make a man seem weak and desperate, but now _he is_ desperate, and he doesn't care what he looks like.  
" I've always loved you."  
Tidwell tilts his head as his smile begins to fade "And I always will." He can barely hide his pain "More than my life."

That's that. He finally said it.

He puts his hands back on his hips and draws himself up, stomach in, chest out, ready to face her reaction.  
It arrives almost immediately.

"Out of my house."

He frowns.  
"What?" he asks in a breath, tilting his head again. Tidwell definitely wasn't expecting that.

"You heard me. Out of here. I don't want to be with you anymore."

**TBC**

**____________________________________________________________________________________________________________**

_**A/N:** Thank you very much my dear astrelita, your help was very useful with this one!_


	5. It's Not the Way I Planned

**It's Not the Way I Planned.  
****  
**

The morning after, as Dani pulls over in front of the LAPD building, Charlie opens the passenger door and enters the car.

"Don't say anything" Reese reminds him, while staring straight ahead.

There is a lot of traffic along the way to the crime scene, and they're forced to go at a snail's pace.

After having spent fifteen minutes hearing horns, radio news, good music, bad music and Charlie masticating something like two apples, a pear and a banana, Dani turns the radio off and grumbles.

"Okay. Stop _not_ _saying anything,_ but, above all, stop chewing!" She turns to him and watches as a smile of victory appears on his lips.

Reese makes a grimace.  
"Oh my god. You _knew _it!" is her incredulous comment.

"What?" mumbles Crews, his mouth still half filled with banana.

"You knew I'd have asked you to stop _not talking_ just to make you stop chomping that fruit!"  
Hearing herself makes Dani think that sometimes she sounds just like Crews.

"You are starting to sound like me, you know?" Charlie manages to say after having gulped down the last bite.

Her dark glance tells him he's touched a raw nerve.

"Okay. I'll stop not saying anything." Dani rolls her eyes and Charlie continues "I saw Tidwell this morning, before you picked me up." He pauses on purpose.

She doesn't comment.

Charlie nods.  
"He was still wearing the clothes he wore yesterday…you know, the suit you bought him, the one which he looks good in, the one I'd like to know-"

"-Crews…"

"Sorry." An apologizing gesture with his hand "I know: '_go_ _straight to the point'_."

"No," she makes a face, "I'm not sure I want to hear this."

"But you have to." He raises his eyebrows, " Not only he was still wearing the suit he wore yesterday, but I think he had an hangover." Charlie pauses to make sure she's listening. " I don't think he went home yesterday night…"

Dani frowns.

"Yes." He confirms the word with a nod, "Reese, he knows everything. I think it's better for him if you talk to him. I mean, it's better for _both of you_ if you talk to him! Just…just look at you this morning: you're pale, you're worried, you're-"

"-he came to my apartment yesterday evening," Dani says while taking a bend too fast.

It's Charlie's turn to frown.

She corrects the curve.  
"He came to tell me he knows I'm pregnant, I told him it won't be a problem soon, and then…" she pauses

"…then?" he asks

Dani purses her mouth.

"Then _what_?" Crews presses, fearing the worst.

She pulls over near the crime scene and turns the engine off, leans back against the headrest still avoiding looking at him.  
"Then he started to say…things…" an indefinite gesture with her hand underlines the deliberate vagueness she's put in her words.

"Things?" Charlie tilts his head, turning in his seat , a questioning look in his eyes.

She knows she's told him to stop repeating her last words because it's really annoying, but right now she simply hasn't even the strength to think about it.

"Yeah, you know…_things_…" she makes a grimace trying to reframe the question.

"Okay." He nods yes patiently. "_Things_. Like, for example…"

Just then Bobby appears at the window.  
"Here you are, finally! Miss Winterspoon and Mr. Robinson are waiting for you in the house, as you two asked them to, and I think they're becoming nervous, so, if you want to catch them…" he gestures towards the house with his thumb.

"We're coming!" Reese says opening the door.

Crews blinks once, shakes his head and exits the car door too.

**xxx xxx xxx**

These are the facts: the murderer hasn't planned to kill the victims, it was a sudden rage, probably raised by an unforeseen event.  
"He" or "she" used a knife, a weapon that both men and women could have used.  
The knife has every sort of fingerprints on it, but Miss Winterspoon's and Jake's were the most definite.

Mafalda Winterspoon, the eccentric middle aged suspect, had an affair with the dead woman, and it ended badly a year before. Then recently the two of them have apparently resumed relations: they have discovered they can be only friends, after all.  
Jake Robinson's mug shot has been pinned to the board in the station since day 1. He was so easy to suspect: a bank robber, he did time twice in five year and he was involved in organized crime, too, as drug dealer. And he was the dead man's best friend.

Now Crews and Reese know the dead woman was expecting a baby, this information leads them to a new track: did Mafalda and Jake know about the pregnancy? Was that the motive for the killing?

Their plan could be summed up like this: put the pressure on, set the trap, lock them up.  
The best way to make them nervous was to ask them to meet in the victim's house: blood and outlines of bodies work wonders sometimes.  
At first, the questioning was routine, but Dani and Charlie weren't prepared for the obvious surprise Mafalda and Jake showed when they learned the female victim had been pregnant.

The two Detectives exchange a look.

"Do you think there is actually _someone_ who knows she was pregnant?" Charlie asks them, frowning.

"I don't know…" Mafalda answers slowly while Jake shakes his head.

"Do you think one of the victims could have been not…" Dani struggles to find the right word but then decides that simpler is better "…_happy_ about the pregnancy?"

Charlie looks questioningly at her.

Jake looks at Mafalda."They weren't married, but they were a couple." He states.

"Why would a happy couple not want a baby?" Miss Winterspoon asks puzzled.

"I don't know…" Dani starts saying, knowing perfectly well she _does know_ it indeed, "…problems about money, or freedom, or fear for the future, for the commitments, for mutual feelings…"

Mafalda shrugs her shoulders.  
"I don't know that. But one thing I know for sure: they had the only thing they need to be happy even with an unexpected baby."

Dani feels like she needs the end of this sentence like she needs air.  
"And what would it be?"

"Love."

**xxx xxx xxx**

They sit on the hood of their unmarked car.  
Charlie is eating some mango and Dani is staring at the beautiful landscape in front of them. This is their usual way to talk about the cases.

"Maybe the knife wasn't the _first_ weapon…" Crews starts to say, raising an eyebrow and putting a slice of mango in his mouth, chewing pensively.

"I don't understand…" Reese frowns, looking at him.

"I mean," he manages to say swallowing the bite "maybe the murderer killed or…subdued them both in some way and then stabbed them with the knife, using the gloves, leaving no fingerprints on it-"

"-knowing we'd have investigated only the owners of the fingerprints we'd have found..." Reese completes his sentence.  
Then she tilts her head and raises the index finger "…that means the murderer actually knew the knife had Mafalda's and Jake's fingerprints on it-"

"-and that means we have to find someone who has something against not only the victims, but even against Mafalda _and_ Jake" ends Crews, nodding yes slowly.  
He looks at her.

"Yes…" she's nodding too while turning slowly her face toward him.

Their eyes meet and the two of them stare at each other for a moment.

"He said he loves me." Dani finds herself confessing out of the blue.

Charlie looks at her for a while, then smiles.  
"I'm not surprised, I imagined that."

She doesn't look away.  
"I left him."

He tilts his head, closing briefly the eyes.  
"I'm not surprised either."

Dani nods yes repeatedly tightening her lips.  
Charlie knows her so well: he's the only one who would react like this, give her support instead of questioning her sanity.

"Crews. Do you think it's true?"

"What?"

"That thing Mafalda said…" Dani starts to explain with great effort "I mean…_he loves me_…" she gulps "…that's really all I need?"

Charlie has no doubt.  
"No."

"No?" She stares questioningly at him, knowing that he's going to say something she doesn't expect.

"No-" he continues, "-_you _loving _him_…" Charlie watches as Dani frowns "…_that's_ all you might need."

**TBC**


	6. Plan B

**Plan** **B**.

No suit and no tie but a pair of jeans and a casual shirt with three buttons left open on his chest.  
And his old leather boots and belt.  
And oh yes, the beard.  
Tidwell hasn't shave for three mornings: it is too painful to start a new day without _her_, so he's begun waking up late.  
_For fuck's sake,_ he justifies himself, _I'm the Captain, I used to wear long hair, now I wear unkempt beard_, _and so?_ _Everybody can think whatever they want_.  
For this reason this evening his beard has the right length to make him appear less "police" and more…"man".  
And it turns in his advantage now.

Tidwell wants his after-break-up routine to begin soon. Before what she did to him could start hurting too much.

_Yes_, he thinks, _as if that's possible_.

So he decides this is the right night to go to a pub, hook up with a girl, possibly blonde and tall, and make her the luckiest woman in the town for the night. Or for the weekend: he doesn't want to make plans.  
He _must stop_ making plans that involve women.

Tidwell collects his wallet and keys and opens the door, but he stops dead with one hand on the light switch and the other on the door handle.

_She_'s standing in front of him in the semi-darkness of the corridor, beautiful as always in her skin-tight jeans and low-necked, skimpy T-shirt.

_No_, he has to admit painfully, _not just '_as always'_, but_ _more than ever_.  
Or, better, as beautiful as she was the first time he met her, when she was the woman he couldn't have.

"Hi." Dani quietly says, looking him straight in the face.

He blinks, trying to be sure she isn't a mirage.  
"Hi."

They stare at each other for a long, awkward moment.

Tidwell doesn't know why she's standing in the corridor, but suspects if he hadn't decided to go out this evening she'd have been able to stay there staring at his front door all night long without ringing his doorbell.

He shifts slightly, making room for her to enter his apartment.

While passing near him Dani brushes his chest with her arm and shoulder, and this contact alone makes Tidwell want to grab her and hold her tightly, forcing her to kiss him just one more time.

But he resists the impulse and, after closing the door, stands face to face with her, trying to keep his arms at his sides and not around her.

Her brown eyes briefly scan him from head to toe before coming back to his face. There's liquid fire in her glance, but she doesn't say a word.

Tidwell thinks she's trying to take her time.  
And he also thinks she has to stop to look at him in this way, because his spirit is strong, but the flesh is definitely weak , and he doesn't know how long he'll be able to control himself.  
He's never touched her without her eager consent, he's never forced her, but now his feelings are messed up and he's almost desperate to feel her body against his once again.

Dani, for her part, feels like time is passing too slowly.  
She has something to tell him but she has never said a thing like this, maybe she has never _thought_ a thing like this before, so she doesn't know how to start.

"Well…" Tidwell breaks the ice, trying both to end the silence and to distract himself from those lewd thoughts, "I'm…very happy to see you, but I think that if what you said is true…" he searches her eyes "… it's better you avoid coming here…I mean, to me nothing has changed, I still…" he pauses trying not to say _that_ word anymore "…_like_ you…and if you keep visiting me…" he makes a gesture with his hand and briefly, uncomfortably, looks away from her steady gaze "I…I mean at work it's hard, but we're not alone, while here-"

"-Kevin…"

_Kevin? _Captain Tidwell loses his train of thought and raises his eyes, staring at her.  
She has never used his first name. Never. Neither when they were alone together in the office, not even when they were making love - she called him '_Captain'_ there too.  
What's happening?

Dani gulps and clenches her fists.  
"I love you too."

She purses her lips.

Dani knows Tidwell's going to laugh and to not believe her, but it doesn't matter. Crews was right: this certainty alone is enough for her. It gave her the strength to go to his apartment this night and the decision to change her mind about the baby.  
She hasn't come here to beg his pardon, she only felt he had the right to know.

But suddenly Dani sees a solitary tear rolling on his cheek.  
She smiles and a sense of relief pervades her whole body. He's forgiven her.

Kevin covers quickly the short distance between him and his beloved Dani, holds her tight, searches her lips and finds her tongue.  
No more women, no more booze, no more adventures. Never more. He's crazy happy.

She takes his head in her hands, fingers tangled in his red hair, caressing it and ruffling it while pulling him closer to her mouth.

"You love me…" he pants between kisses, pinning her against the nearest wall to steady their bodies better, searching a full contact with her, losing the little self-control he had.

"Yes.." Dani whispers in his mouth, trying to unfasten the buttons of his shirt.

"…and we are going to have a baby…" Kevin answers against her parted lips, moistening them with his saliva, while his hand finds its way under her T-shirt, unhooking her bra.

"Yes, we are…" she replies softly, taking off the shirt from his jeans.

He pauses for a moment, moves his face slightly back from hers and looks straight in her fiery eyes.  
This moment is too important: he wants to fix it in his memory forever. It is exactly like he imagined it should have been.

He doesn't stop staring at her.  
"I love you."

She smiles and draws his face toward hers, sweetly catching his lips with her mouth, kissing him deeply.

When they part Dani places her palms on his bare chest, and caressing him she helps him take off his shirt.  
"_Captain_, we have to celebrate, do you remember?" she taunts him.

Kevin gives her a knowing smile and sweeps her up in his arms "We have the whole weekend in front of us…"

**THE END**

**xxx xxx xxx**

**Epilogue**

A grey dress.  
Captain Tidwell would have preferred a black one but she said grey would show up better his blue eyes and his red hair.  
He was standing there, in the sun, waiting for her, like he did all those time in the conference room or in his office, or at home, when she asked him to.  
But this time is different. He's not alone: at least one thousand people are staring at him. Parents, new friends, old friends and the whole department. Oh, and him: the little Brian Tidwell, the future "fifth generation as a cop". The baby has fallen asleep in Charlie's arms and is going to miss the whole ceremony, but it doesn't matter, he's too young to understand the importance of what is going to happen here between his mom and his dad: they'll tell him everything when he grows up.

The wedding march starts to play and Dani appears at the beginning of the red carpet wearing a beaming smile.

Tidwell looks at her and smiles back.  
She has never looked as beautiful as she does right now. Never.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_"That's all folks!"_

I want to thank you very much for having readed this fic. It was my 'tribute' to the Tidwell/Reese's story. I hope the show gets renewed, but if it doesn't, at least I have made this: my 'personal' ending. :)

_I had the big honour to have a real writer as a betareader: she tried to do her best without changing my "voice", and I think she did a great job. Her suggestions were precious and each and every mistake left behind are only my fault.  
Thank you very much my dear Astrelita!_


End file.
